Following President Joe Biden’s announcement of dropping out of the presidential race and his endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris, “kamala IS brat” was tweeted by British pop singer-songwriter Charli xcx on July 21, 2024. Many people on social media quickly backed Harris, referring to her as Charli xcx’s new summer term, “brat”. “Brat” is a term used to describe a woman who is powerful and strong-willed, and the singer referring to Vice President Kamala Harris as “brat” signified a new turn in the Harris campaign.
Concern spread through the media about why we would refer to our vice president as a brat, but the media quickly learned Vice President Kamala Harris was not referred to as a brat, but referred to as the “brat”.
Not long after President Biden announced his stepping down from the Democratic ticket, Vice President Harris announced her candidacy for president. Her campaign rapidly took to social media, calling themselves “Kamala HQ”. Right after Charli xcx’s tweet “kamala IS brat”, Kamala HQ, on the social media platform X, changed their cover photo to the same lime green and “brat” font with “KAMALA HQ” in black letters. Kamala HQ hasn’t just based their campaign around Brat Summer, but rather whatever is trending in social media at that time.
Political campaigns are very aware of their marketing strategies and who they’re marketing towards. Specifically, the Kamala Harris campaign has taken humorous TikTok trends and memes and turned them into political gain. Most of Gen-Z is able to vote as of the 2024 presidential election, being the perfect target for the Harris campaign to narrow in on.
Kamala HQ has used songs by Chappell Roan such as “Femininomenon” in TikTok videos, and most notably, edits of Vice President Harris and her “coconut tree” quote. A video of VP Harris saying, “You think you just fell out of a coconut tree”, going on to explain that we exist in the context of all in which we lived before and what came before us. This clip went viral on social media after TikTok edits were made. The comment seems random in comparison to the context of the video, where she shared a story of her mother’s expression of the importance of working hard towards a mission and goals, but social media ran with it, especially after the announcement of her candidacy.
Kamala HQ has managed to turn Brat Summer into “Kamala Summer” and continues to turn social media trends into their benefit for political campaign marketing.
